Measuring Provisioning Capacity Across Distributed Systems

ABSTRACT

Provisioning capacity measuring may be provided. First, a provisioning monitoring job may run on a grid manager that spawns a plurality of farm monitoring jobs onto a respective plurality of farms. Next, a user count for each of the respective plurality of farms may be respectively provided. The user count may comprise a number of users on each of the respective plurality of farms. An event alert may be provided when the user count for any of the respective plurality of farms is greater than a threshold.

BACKGROUND

Cloud computing provides computation, software, data access, and storageservices that do not require end-user knowledge of the physical locationand configuration of the system that delivers the services. Parallels tothis concept can be drawn with the electricity grid, wherein end-usersconsume power without needing to understand the component devices orinfrastructure required to provide the service.

Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption, and deliverymodel for IT services based on Internet protocols, and it typicallyinvolves provisioning of dynamically scalable and often virtualizedresources. It is a byproduct and consequence of the ease-of-access toremote computing sites provided by the Internet. This may take the formof web-based tools or applications that users can access and use througha web browser as if the programs were installed locally on their owncomputers.

SUMMARY

Provisioning capacity measuring may be provided. This Summary isprovided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form thatare further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary isnot intended to identify key features or essential features of theclaimed subject matter. Nor is this Summary intended to be used to limitthe claimed subject matter's scope.

Provisioning capacity measuring may be provided. First, a provisioningmonitoring job may run on a grid manager that spawns a plurality of farmmonitoring jobs onto a respective plurality of farms. Next, a user countfor each of the respective plurality of farms may be respectivelyprovided. The user count may comprise a number of users on each of therespective plurality of farms. An event alert may be provided when theuser count for any of the respective plurality of farms is greater thana threshold.

Both the foregoing general description and the following detaileddescription provide examples and are explanatory only. Accordingly, theforegoing general description and the following detailed descriptionshould not be considered to be restrictive. Further, features orvariations may be provided in addition to those set forth herein. Forexample, embodiments may be directed to various feature combinations andsub-combinations described in the detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this disclosure, illustrate various embodiments of the presentinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an operating environment;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a method for measuring provisioning capacity;and

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system including a computing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings.Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawingsand the following description to refer to the same or similar elements.While embodiments of the invention may be described, modifications,adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For example,substitutions, additions, or modifications may be made to the elementsillustrated in the drawings, and the methods described herein may bemodified by substituting, reordering, or adding stages to the disclosedmethods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limitthe invention. Instead, the proper scope of the invention is defined bythe appended claims.

Cloud computing systems may use web application platforms (e.g.SharePoint Online™) to support tenants and users corresponding to thetenants. As cloud computing systems continue to grow and service largercustomers, the system may need to continuously track the number oftenants and users that have been provisioned in various parts of thesystem. This information may be used to make strategic decisionsregarding when, for example, to close content farms, directory servicesfarms (e.g. SharePoint Online™ directory services (SPODS) farms), tenantplacement, and when to divert traffic to utilize resources moreefficiently. Conventional systems have not been able to report datareal-time, typically resulting, for example, in a large lag untiloperations engineers can execute a query.

Embodiments consistent with the invention may track and monitor thenumber of tenants and users that have been provisioned throughoutvarious parts of a system. A new provisioning monitoring job may bescheduled in a grid manager that then spawns related jobs for each farm.Licensed and unlicensed user counts may be aggregated in both contentfarms and directory services farms, pushed back to the grid manager, andstored in a grid database. Thresholds may be set, for example, at 50%,75%, 90%, and 100%. If these thresholds are reached, an event may befired to notify operations engineers.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an operating environment 100. Operatingenvironment 100 may comprise, but is not limited to, a cloud computingsystem using a web application platform operated on the Internet.Operating environment 100 may comprise at least one content farm 105, atleast one directory services farm 110, and a grid manager 115 connectedtogether by a network. Directory services farm 110 may comprise, but isnot limited to, a SharePoint Online™ directory services (SPODS) farm.While only one content farm and one directory services farm is shown inFIG. 1, operating system 100 may include any number of content farms anddirectory services farms. Each farm (i.e. content farm 105 and directoryservices farm 110) may have a limit to the number of tenants, licensedusers, and unlicensed users that it can provision. A farm may comprise acollection of computer servers maintained to accomplish server needsbeyond the capability of one machine. As will be described in greaterdetail below with respect to FIG. 3, a computing device 300 may comprisean operating environment for content farm 105, directory services farm110, or grid manager 115.

When operating environment 100 is created, a provisioning monitoring jobmay be started. The provisioning monitoring job may run on grid manager115 and may be configurable to run for all networks or a specificnetwork (e.g. operating environment 100.) The provisioning monitoringjob may then spawn additional jobs on content farm 105 and on directoryservices farm 110. If other content farms and other directory servicesfarms exist in operating environment 100, provisioning monitoring jobmay spawn additional jobs on these additional other content farms andother directory services farms. The additional job spawned on directoryservices farm 110 may calculate a count of licensed users and unlicensedusers within directory services farm 110, while also determining thedirectory services farm (e.g. directory services farm 110) in which thecalculate licensed users and unlicensed users reside. These calculatedcounts may then be returned to content farm 105 where they areaggregated by the additional job spawned on content farm 105 to tally acount of users per content farm. The aggregation may happen on contentfarm 105 because an assumption may not be made that all users within agiven content farm (e.g. content farm 105) reside in the same directoryservices farm (e.g. directory services farm 110).

The job spawned on content farm 105 may then return the counts oflicensed users and unlicensed users per content farm (e.g. content farm105) and directory services farm (e.g. directory services farm 110) tothe grid manager 115 to store in a grid manager database. This may allowreporting to a central location within operating environment 100.Capacity thresholds may be defined for the various components (e.g.content farm 105 and directory services farm 110) of operatingenvironment 100. If a component reaches, for example, 50%, 75%, 90%, or100% capacity, an alert may fire. This gradual step approach may provideample warning for an operations team if they need to take action toclose farms, stand up new farms, or move tenants.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart setting forth the general stages involved in amethod 200 consistent with an embodiment of the invention for measuringprovisioning capacity. Method 200 may be implemented using one or moreof computing device 300 as described in more detail below with respectto FIG. 3. Ways to implement the stages of method 200 will be describedin greater detail below.

Method 200 may begin at starting block 205 and proceed to stage 210where grid manager 115 may run a provisioning monitoring job. Forexample, the provisioning monitoring job may comprise a computer programthat may run on grid manager 115 and may be configurable to run for allnetworks or a specific network (e.g. operating environment 100.)

From stage 210, where grid manager 115 runs the provisioning monitoringjob, method 200 may advance to stage 220 where the provisioningmonitoring job may spawn a plurality of farm monitoring jobs onto arespective plurality of farms. The plurality of farms may comprise, forexample, content farm 105 and directory services farm 110. While runningon grid manager 115, the provisioning monitoring job may provide farmsrunning in operating environment 100 with farm monitoring jobscomprising computer programs. For example, the provisioning monitoringjob may provide content farm 105 with a content farm monitoring job.Moreover, the provisioning monitoring job may provide directory servicesfarm 110 with a directory services farm monitoring job.

Once the provisioning monitoring job spawns the plurality of farmmonitoring jobs in stage 220, method 200 may continue to stage 230 wherethe plurality of farm monitoring jobs may respectively provide a usercount for each of the respective plurality of farms. The user count maycomprise a number of users on each of the respective plurality of farms.For example, licensed and unlicensed user counts may be aggregated inboth content farm 105 and directory services farm 110. These counts maybe pushed back over the network to grid manager 115 and stored in thegrid database on grid manager 115.

Consistent with embodiments of the invention, the directory servicesfarm monitoring job may calculate the user count of licensed andunlicensed users within directory services farm 110. In addition, thedirectory services farm monitoring job may note a content farm (e.g.content farm 105) in which the calculated users reside. The calculateuser count may then be sent to content farm 105. The content farmmonitoring job running on content farm 105 may then aggregate thesenumbers to tally an exact count of users on content farm 105. Theaggregation may be performed by the content farm monitoring job runningon content farm 105 because an assumption may not be made that all userswithin content farm 105 reside in directory services farm 110. Thecontent farm monitoring job running on content farm 105 may then sendthe counts of licensed/unlicensed users per content farm 105 anddirectory services farm 110 to the grid manager 115 to store in the gridmanager database. This may allow reporting off to a central locationwithin the web application platform running in operating environment100.

After the plurality of farm monitoring jobs respectively provides theuser count for each of the respective plurality of farms in stage 230,method 200 may proceed to stage 240 where grid manager 115 may provide(e.g. display) an event alert when the user count for any of therespective plurality of farms is greater than a threshold. For example,if the number of users on content farm 105 has reached a first threshold(e.g. 50% of content farm 105's capacity), then grid manager 115 mayprovide (e.g. display) a first event alert comprising a “yellow alert.”If the number of users on content farm 105 continues to grow and reachesa second threshold (e.g. 75% of content farm 105's capacity), then gridmanager 115 may provide (e.g. display) a second event alert comprisingan “orange alert.” This may continue for any capacity levels. Also, thesame event alert process may apply to directory services farm 110. Thisgradual step approach may provide ample warning for an operationsengineering team to take action to, for example, close farms, stand upnew farms, or move tenants or users. Once grid manager 115 provides theevent alert in stage 240, method 200 may then end at stage 250.

An embodiment consistent with the invention may comprise a system formeasuring provisioning capacity. The system may comprise a memorystorage and a processing unit coupled to the memory storage. Theprocessing unit may be operative to spawn a plurality of farm monitoringjobs onto a respective plurality of farms. In addition, the processingunit may be operative to respectively receive a user count for each of arespective plurality of farms. The user count may comprise a number ofusers on each of the respective plurality of farms. Furthermore, theprocessing unit may be operative to provide an event alert when the usercount for any of the respective plurality of farms is greater than athreshold.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system including computing device 300.Consistent with an embodiment of the invention, the aforementionedmemory storage and processing unit may be implemented in a computingdevice, such as computing device 300 of FIG. 3. Any suitable combinationof hardware, software, or firmware may be used to implement the memorystorage and processing unit. For example, the memory storage andprocessing unit may be implemented with computing device 300 or any ofother computing devices 318, in combination with computing device 300.The aforementioned system, device, and processors are examples and othersystems, devices, and processors may comprise the aforementioned memorystorage and processing unit, consistent with embodiments of theinvention. Furthermore, computing device 300 may comprise an operatingenvironment for system 100 as described above. System 100 may operate inother environments and is not limited to computing device 300.

With reference to FIG. 3, a system consistent with an embodiment of theinvention may include a computing device, such as computing device 300.In a basic configuration, computing device 300 may include at least oneprocessing unit 302 and a system memory 304. Depending on theconfiguration and type of computing device, system memory 304 maycomprise, but is not limited to, volatile (e.g. random access memory(RAM)), non-volatile (e.g. read-only memory (ROM)), flash memory, or anycombination. System memory 304 may include operating system 305, one ormore programming modules 306, and may include a program data 307.Program data 307 may comprise the grid manager database when computingdevice 300 comprises grid manger 115. Operating system 305, for example,may be suitable for controlling computing device 300's operation. In oneembodiment, programming modules 306 may include application program 320.Application program 320 may comprise the provisioning monitoring jobwhen computing device 300 comprises grid manager 115. In addition,application program 320 may comprise the content farm monitoring jobwhen computing device 300 comprises content farm 105. And applicationprogram 320 may comprise the directory services farm monitoring job whencomputing device 300 comprises directory services farm 110. Furthermore,embodiments of the invention may be practiced in conjunction with agraphics library, other operating systems, or any other applicationprogram and is not limited to any particular application or system. Thisbasic configuration is illustrated in FIG. 3 by those components withina dashed line 308.

Computing device 300 may have additional features or functionality. Forexample, computing device 300 may also include additional data storagedevices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example, magneticdisks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated inFIG. 3 by a removable storage 309 and a non-removable storage 310.Computing device 300 may also contain a communication connection 316that may allow computing device 300 to communicate with other computingdevices 318, such as over a network in a distributed computingenvironment, for example, an intranet or the Internet. Communicationconnection 316 is one example of communication media.

The term computer readable media as used herein may include computerstorage media. Computer storage media may include volatile andnonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any methodor technology for storage of information, such as computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data. Systemmemory 304, removable storage 309, and non-removable storage 310 are allcomputer storage media examples (i.e. memory storage). Computer storagemedia may include, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, electricallyerasable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memorytechnology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other opticalstorage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used tostore information and which can be accessed by computing device 300. Anysuch computer storage media may be part of device 300. Computing device300 may also have input device(s) 312 such as a keyboard, a mouse, apen, a sound input device, a touch input device, etc. Output device(s)314 such as a display, speakers, a printer, etc. may also be included.The aforementioned devices are examples and others may be used.

The term computer readable media as used herein may also includecommunication media. Communication media may be embodied by computerreadable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other datain a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transportmechanism, and includes any information delivery media. The term“modulated data signal” may describe a signal that has one or morecharacteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode informationin the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communicationmedia may include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wiredconnection, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF),infrared, and other wireless media.

As stated above, a number of program modules and data files may bestored in system memory 304, including operating system 305. Whileexecuting on processing unit 302, programming modules 306 (e.g.application program 320) may perform processes including, for example,one or more method 200's stages as described above. The aforementionedprocess is an example, and processing unit 302 may perform otherprocesses. Other programming modules that may be used in accordance withembodiments of the present invention may include electronic mail andcontacts applications, word processing applications, spreadsheetapplications, database applications, slide presentation applications,drawing or computer-aided application programs, etc.

Embodiments of the invention may be practiced via a system-on-a-chip(SOC) where each or many of the components illustrated in FIG. 3 may beintegrated onto a single integrated circuit. Such an SOC device mayinclude one or more processing units, graphics units, communicationsunits, system virtualization units and various application functionalityall of which may be integrated (or “burned”) onto the chip substrate asa single integrated circuit. When operating via an SOC, thefunctionality described herein with respect to embodiments of theinvention, may be performed via application-specific logic integratedwith other components of computing device 300 on the single integratedcircuit (chip).

Computing device 300 may be coupled to a camera that may be operative torecord a user and capture motions and/or gestures made by the user.Computing device 300 may be further operative to capture words spoken bythe user, such as by a microphone, and/or capture other inputs from theuser such as by a keyboard and/or mouse (not pictured). Consistent withembodiments of the invention, the camera may comprise any motiondetection device capable of detecting the movement of the user. Forexample, the camera may comprise a Microsoft® Kinect® motion capturedevice comprising a plurality of cameras and a plurality of microphones.

Generally, consistent with embodiments of the invention, program modulesmay include routines, programs, components, data structures, and othertypes of structures that may perform particular tasks or that mayimplement particular abstract data types. Moreover, embodiments of theinvention may be practiced with other computer system configurations,including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems,microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics,minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments of theinvention may also be practiced in distributed computing environmentswhere tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linkedthrough a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotememory storage devices.

Furthermore, embodiments of the invention may be practiced in anelectrical circuit comprising discrete electronic elements, packaged orintegrated electronic chips containing logic gates, a circuit utilizinga microprocessor, or on a single chip containing electronic elements ormicroprocessors. Embodiments of the invention may also be practicedusing other technologies capable of performing logical operations suchas, for example, AND, OR, and NOT, including but not limited tomechanical, optical, fluidic, and quantum technologies. In addition,embodiments of the invention may be practiced within a general purposecomputer or in any other circuits or systems.

Embodiments of the invention, for example, may be implemented as acomputer process (method), a computing system, or as an article ofmanufacture, such as a computer program product or computer readablemedia. The computer program product may be a computer storage mediareadable by a computer system and encoding a computer program ofinstructions for executing a computer process. The computer programproduct may also be a propagated signal on a carrier readable by acomputing system and encoding a computer program of instructions forexecuting a computer process. Accordingly, the present invention may beembodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, residentsoftware, micro-code, etc.). In other words, embodiments of the presentinvention may take the form of a computer program product on acomputer-usable or computer-readable storage medium havingcomputer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the mediumfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. Acomputer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that cancontain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for useby or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, ordevice.

The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example butnot limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagationmedium. More specific computer-readable medium examples (anon-exhaustive list), the computer-readable medium may include thefollowing: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portablecomputer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory(ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flashmemory), an optical fiber, and a portable compact disc read-only memory(CD-ROM). Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable mediumcould even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program isprinted, as the program can be electronically captured, via, forinstance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled,interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary,and then stored in a computer memory.

Embodiments of the present invention, for example, are described abovewith reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations ofmethods, systems, and computer program products according to embodimentsof the invention. The functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur outof the order as shown in any flowchart. For example, two blocks shown insuccession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or theblocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending uponthe functionality/acts involved.

While certain embodiments of the invention have been described, otherembodiments may exist. Furthermore, although embodiments of the presentinvention have been described as being associated with data stored inmemory and other storage mediums, data can also be stored on or readfrom other types of computer-readable media, such as secondary storagedevices, like hard disks, floppy disks, or a CD-ROM, a carrier wave fromthe Internet, or other forms of RAM or ROM. Further, the disclosedmethods' stages may be modified in any manner, including by reorderingstages and/or inserting or deleting stages, without departing from theinvention.

All rights including copyrights in the code included herein are vestedin and the property of the Applicant. The Applicant retains and reservesall rights in the code included herein, and grants permission toreproduce the material only in connection with reproduction of thegranted patent and for no other purpose.

While the specification includes examples, the invention's scope isindicated by the following claims. Furthermore, while the specificationhas been described in language specific to structural features and/ormethodological acts, the claims are not limited to the features or actsdescribed above. Rather, the specific features and acts described aboveare disclosed as example for embodiments of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for measuring provisioning capacity, themethod comprising: running a provisioning monitoring job on a gridmanager; spawning, by the provisioning monitoring job, a plurality offarm monitoring jobs onto a respective plurality of farms; providingrespectively, by the plurality of farm monitoring jobs, a user count foreach of the respective plurality of farms, the user count comprising anumber of users on each of the respective plurality of farms; andproviding an event alert when the user count for any of the respectiveplurality of farms is greater than a threshold.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein running the provisioning monitoring job on the grid managercomprises running the provisioning monitoring job on the grid managerbeing configured to run on a network including the plurality of farms.3. The method of claim 1, wherein running the provisioning monitoringjob on the grid manager comprises running the provisioning monitoringjob on the grid manager periodically.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinspawning onto the respective plurality of farms comprises spawning ontothe respective plurality of farms comprising a content farm.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein spawning onto the respective plurality offarms comprises spawning onto the respective plurality of farmscomprising a directory services farm.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinspawning onto the respective plurality of farms comprises spawning ontothe respective plurality of farms comprising a content farm and adirectory services farm.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein providing theuser count for each of the respective plurality of farms comprisesproviding the user count to the grid manager.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein providing the user count for each of the respective plurality offarms comprises aggregating a number of licensed users and a number ofunlicensed users into the user count for each of the respectiveplurality of farms.
 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising saving,to a grid manager database, the user count for each of the respectiveplurality of farms.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprisingsaving, to a grid manager database, the user count for each of therespective plurality of farms, the grid manager database residing on thegrid manager.
 11. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the eventalert comprises providing the event alert by the grid manager.
 12. Amethod for measuring provisioning capacity, the method comprising:running a provisioning monitoring job on a grid manager; spawning, bythe provisioning monitoring job, a content farm monitoring job onto acontent farm; spawning, by the provisioning monitoring job, a directoryservices farm monitoring job onto a directory services farm;determining, by the directory services farm monitoring job, a count ofthe licensed users and unlicensed users within the directory servicesfarm; passing the count of the licensed users and unlicensed userswithin the directory services farm to the content farm monitoring job onthe content farm; determining, by the content farm monitoring job, acount of the licensed users and unlicensed users within the content farmbased at least upon the count of the licensed users and unlicensed userswithin the directory services farm; passing, from the content farmmonitoring job, the count of the licensed users and unlicensed userswithin the content farm and the count of the licensed users andunlicensed users within the directory services farm to the grid manager;providing, by the grid manager, a first event alert when the count ofthe licensed users and unlicensed users within the content farm isgreater than a first threshold; and providing, by the grid manager, asecond event alert when the count of the licensed users and unlicensedusers within the directory services farm is greater than a secondthreshold.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein running the provisioningmonitoring job on the grid manager comprises running the provisioningmonitoring job on the grid manager being configured to run on a networkincluding the plurality of farms.
 14. The method of claim 12, whereinrunning the provisioning monitoring job on the grid manager comprisesrunning the provisioning monitoring job on the grid managerperiodically.
 15. A system for measuring provisioning capacity, thesystem comprising: a memory storage; and a processing unit coupled tothe memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to: spawn aplurality of farm monitoring jobs onto a respective plurality of farms;respectively receive a user count for each of a respective plurality offarms, the user count comprising a number of users on each of therespective plurality of farms; and provide an event alert when the usercount for any of the respective plurality of farms is greater than athreshold.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processing unit beingoperative to spawn onto the respective plurality of farms comprises theprocessing unit being operative to spawn onto the respective pluralityof farms comprising a content farm.
 17. The system of claim 15, whereinthe processing unit being operative to spawn onto the respectiveplurality of farms comprises the processing unit being operative tospawn onto the respective plurality of farms comprising a directoryservices farm.
 18. The system of claim 15, wherein the processing unitbeing operative to spawn onto the respective plurality of farmscomprises the processing unit being operative to spawn onto therespective plurality of farms comprising a content farm and a directoryservices farm.
 19. The system of claim 15, wherein the processing unitbeing operative to receive the user count for each of the respectiveplurality of farms comprises the processing unit being operative toreceive the user count comprising an aggregated number of licensed usersand a number of unlicensed users for each of the respective plurality offarms.
 20. The system of claim 15, further comprises the processing unitbeing operative to save, to a grid manager database, the user count foreach of the respective plurality of farms.